“Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted will tell the story behind the making of TV classic The Mary Tyler Moore Show. To be published by Simon & Schuster
in 2013, the book will offer readers a glimpse inside the lives of the
groundbreaking female TV writers who lent their real lives to scripts,
the men who created the indelible characters, the lone woman in the
network executive ranks who cast the legendary ensemble, and the
colorful cast of actors who made it all work. James L. Brooks, Grant
Tinker, Allan Burns, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, Gavin
MacLeod, Ed Asner, Ted Knight, Georgia Engel — they all came together
to make a show that changed women’s lives, and television. Here’s how
they did it.”

I’ve been a huge fan of The Mary Tyler Moore Show
for about twenty years, ever since I took a TV writing class in college
and my professor showed us an episode. I own all the DVDs and I still
laugh, even at the episodes I’ve watched numerous times. Over the years,
I read After All by Mary Tyler Moore, recently finished I, Rhoda
by Valerie Harper (thanks to Michelle’s suggestion), and own trivia
books about the show. I once won movie tickets in a radio contest for
correctly answering a trivia quesiton about the show. In sum, it’s my
all-time favorite television show. When I saw there was a new book
coming out about the show I was excited and am incredibly grateful to
Michelle for getting me the advanced copy. For a new book written more
than forty years after the show started demonstrates the show’s
long-lasting effect on the history of television and culture.

As
a fan, much of the book, though enjoyable to read, was more or less the
same information readily available through other books and
documentaries. Armstrong utilized numerous books, articles, and
interviews for her tribute but surprisingly, nowhere in her index was Love is All Around: The Making of the Mary Tyler Moore Show by Robert S. Alley and Irby B. Brown (1989). Essentially, Armstrong’s book was an updated and expanded version of Love is All Around.

Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted
chronicles how the producers and writers met and created the show,
casting, character development and relationships, and plots and
storylines. It contained anecdotal details, such as how the creators and
writers met, but the core was the oft-heard story of how CBS didn’t
like the original premise of making Mary a divorcee (fearing people
would think she divorced Dick Van Dyke), the first taping of the pilot
was not well-received, and the overall prediction by many was that it
wouldn’t last beyond its committed thirteen episodes. Yet the show takes
off and still ranks as one of the top Emmy winning shows in all of
television history.

Where Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted differs from Love is All Around is that there are more details about people’s personal lives, relationships with each other, and background prior to joining TheMary Tyler Moore Show.
These details were interesting, especially the parts about how the
show, for the first time in television history, purposely hired and
elevated female comedy writers. From her introduction, I expected the
book to mostly be about the female writers and was disappointed there
wasn’t more about them. Armstrong also briefly interweaves how the show
and its characters affected feminist and women’s history. Mary Richards
was the first thirtysomething woman on television to focus more on a
career than finding a husband. Recent shows with a similar premise (Sex and the City, 30 Rock) are often tied and compared to The Mary Tyler Moore Show for that reason.

Overall,
the book was an enjoyable read, even though I only learned a little bit
more about the show and the people involved. For readers who do not
know the behind-the-scenes details of the show, it will be a great read.
For readers who know the history, it will be a pleasant walk down
memory lane about the people and characters from one of the greatest
shows in television history.

Thank you to Wendy at Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy and thanks, once again, to my awesome friend and passionate book reviewer, Cheryl.

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All material is Copyright 2009-2016 by Michelle Wermerskirchen @www.Red Headed Book Child.com. Material that is quoted from another source will be listed. If you see any material from this site on another, they are in violation of my copyright. Thank you.